This invention relates generally to a communication control unit for facilitating bidirectional digital data transfers between a host processor and various types of communication networks and peripheral devices.
An increasing number of large multiuser data processing systems require the capability of bidirectionally transferring data at high rates between a host central processing unit ("host") and various types of communication networks and peripheral devices. Because the networks typically transmit data at very high rates and the host processor input/output (I/O) bus frequently exhibits relatively long latency times, the disparity adversely affects aggregate system throughput and may occasionally cause loss of network data when different devices contend for the same host internal data bus.
The present invention is directed to an improved communication control unit (controller), useful for front end protocol processing of data communicated between a host processor and a communications network. The controller is architecturally configured to enhance system thoughput by minimizing the aforementioned device contention.